


The Size of Australia

by Notrus



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Gen, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony is a bit hard on himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 07:52:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11687292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notrus/pseuds/Notrus
Summary: Tony has a guilt complex the side of Australia. Peter may just add a new island. Say, the size of New Zealand.Sequel to Concrete and Ash. Tony's pov on feelings, responsibility, and how he has, once again, messed up.





	The Size of Australia

Tony Stark didn’t do ‘feelings’. He barely handled his own at the best of times and at the worst, well; the less said, the better.

But for the kid, he tried.

Happy had sent him a text when Peter had contacted him outside of his weekly report for some advice. Tony told him to let the kid handle it.

A week and a half later, Happy forwarded him a voice mail.

“Hey Happy.” The kid sounds so tired and wrung out, Tony doesn’t want to believe it’s the same bubbly kid until the usual dorky greeting comes up. “It’s me, Peter. Parker. I know it’s the middle of the week but I was wondering if I could get that advice from Mr. Stark please.” It’s a little rushed and a lot strung out. “It’s not anything I can’t handle, I could just use a bit of help – uh, helpful advice. Nothing bad, I just, uh, please. If you’d pass that along. Thanks.”

The entire message was laced with desperation and Tony checked the accompanying text message. This message had been left at 5:31 in the morning and was the fifth time the kid asked for advice. Tony had a bad feeling he knew exactly what this call was about.

Damnit. He didn’t do feelings, but he was responsible for the kid. So he moved up all his meetings with the Austrian government and wrapped up three days of work in fourteen hours. He slept a bit on the flight back, but mostly tried to figure out what ‘good advice’ he possibly had to give. Peter, for whatever bizarre reason, hung on his every word.

He called the school, said he needed his intern for the weekend, and they were only too happy to excuse him. May Parker had been a little different. There were strict guidelines on Peter doing his schoolwork, going to bed on time, and not having a scratch on him when he returned. Tony felt like a babysitter trying to reassure an overprotective mother instead of a superhero taking his protégé to headquarters.

And that was how Tony Stark came to be waiting outside of a high school just 33 hours and 14 minutes after Peter’s beat down call.

Happy exchanged pleasantries with the kid before ushering him into the backseat. Peter looked completely flabbergasted to find him there and Tony mentally patted himself on the back for a job well done. They start with the suit and Tony surprised himself with the sheer amount of worry he felt for the kid. The upper right leg of the suit was fried. It looked like some kind of concussive/explosive blast had hit it at near point blank range. Peter’s leg couldn’t have been ok after that.

Apparently, the kid was fine (damn healing factor) and didn’t understand the point of letting himself heal. Tony made a mental note to check out Spider-Man’s latest drop off to the Department of Damage Control to figure out just what he’d been hit with.

Then the kid tries to deny needing any advice. For the love of ---

Tony doesn’t buy that crap for a second and with the kid fidgeting and looking anywhere but him, he opts for a one on one.

“Let me tell you what I think. I think you’re having nightmares about being on the outside of a jet with no parachute and then crashing onto a beach.” Peter’s shoulders roll in to protect himself and Tony knows he’s hit the nail on the head. He carries on with the only piece of advice he’s sure of. “And I just want you to know, that’s ok.”

Peter looks up at him like he’s some personal angel he can’t believe is here to save such a pitiful, lost soul. This damn kid…

Tony shares the story of New York and tells Peter to not be a dick, to be better than him. He can tell the kid is thinking about what to do instead but Tony doesn’t know much about that stuff. Instead he demands the kid tell him about it. He doesn’t want to listen to the kid’s feelings but it’s his responsibility. He took away the suit and let Peter cling onto a crashing jet without a parachute or any kind of protection. The least he could do is listen. He’d had a few rough landings himself and that had to be something alike-

“He dropped a building on me.”

Honest to God, his heart skips a beat. He hadn’t known about that. He’d seen the destroyed warehouse in pictures and figured the Vulture was just covering his tracks. He’d never even considered…

Peter gets more and more worked up as he talks about being pinned under a _building_ , _terrified_ that he was going to _die_ , _alone_. Missing his _tracker_ because then someone would know where to find him, where to even look for him; too pinned to even get himself up.

Tony isn’t sure whether he’s more horrified or proud when it’s his words about being a super hero even without the suit that gave Peter the strength to stand up, through several tons of concrete, and _still_ cling to the outside of a moving jet and fight Vulture on the beach.

Tony was wrong. Peter didn’t need to try to be better than Tony, he simply was, with every fiber of his being.

Peter talks about his nightmare, about still being trapped, wondering if he’d ever left at all. Tony knows those dreams. The ones where he’s still in Afghanistan. The ones were a shimmering blanket of stars consume him. The ones where Cap leaves him in the broken suit and no one else is there to bring him home.

And Peter is only _fifteen_.

Tony made the decision right then that he was going to pay a visit to Toomes and ask the warden for some more comfortable accommodations. Spider-Man may have spared his life, but this trauma was going to stay with Peter until the day he died.

“So you’re not going to take the suit?” Peter looks like a kicked puppy dog and Tony would much rather kick himself. Twenty percent of giving him that suit was to make him look like a real hero and the other eighty percent was to keep Peter safe. But Tony had taken that away just when Peter had needed it most. If Peter had died, it would be because Tony had tried to ground him, forgetting that teenagers never do as their told, and taken away the only safety measures he had.

He hadn’t felt like such a piece of shit since, well... He often felt like shit. He’d done a lot of stupid things in his life. This though, this was a special kind of shit. This was a kid who wanted to be a hero but didn’t know the first thing about the dangers that came with it. Tony was supposed to guide him into the big leagues, not strand him in the deep end.

And he knew that look. That shadow behind his eyes that said the suit was all that kept him together some days.

Sick of feelings, (literally, his stomach was rolling), he told the kid about their little slumber party and was relieved when the kid lit up. That was the light he was trying to protect. That was the Peter Parker he’d never forgive himself for losing.

Tony Stark had done a lot of wrongs in his life, but he was determined to get this right.

It was only hours later, with Peter passed out on the workbench, textbook stretched across his stomach, far off in dreamland, that another child under a collapsed building came to mind.

Wanda and Pietro had been under that roof for days. They had enough room to move, lying down, but couldn’t for fear of the bomb. Peter had been completely crushed. If he was even slightly less durable, it would have been bye-bye Spidey.

If he ever saw Wanda again (and he likely would), he’d apologize again. With a lot more understanding and empathy because this time, it had been _his kid_ under a pile of rubble.

And no amount of good deeds would ever redeem him for letting Peter get hurt.

**Author's Note:**

> Tony is too hard on himself. Really.
> 
> Still, I love how he tries to be a dad to Peter even though he has no idea what he's doing. It's sweet. ^^
> 
> Kudos if you love Tony!  
> \----------  
> Emergency!  
> Someone please tell me how to link two works together. T^T I think both of these work best as one shots but I don't know how to link them.


End file.
